Love’m… and Leave’m Behind
Goggles – I like them for resort skiing, but wish I could get back all hours in life I’ve spent waiting for people to clear their gogg’s, only to have them instantly fog up again. I prefer well-vented sunglasses and case-hardened corneas.
Thermos’ – Great for saving fuel on expeditions, but pack-hogging dead-weight anchors for day trips.
Ski Crampons – Backcountry crutches. Learn to skin and you’ll be way better off in the long run.
Helmets – I like them for technical skiing, resorts, kiting or alpine climbing, but not general BC skiing. If anything, I think they instill a false sense of confidence.
- Skiing with elephants – Jordy Margid (the man behind plastic teleboots in the U.S.) shows how NOT to do it.
Other items that must go:
- – water purifiers
- – ice axes, especially those with classic picks.
- – big lunches.
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Category: 02 Gear
Agreed on all of those, although if I’m skiing with my wife (sadly this is rare since we have little kids) I will take a thermos and good food and a z-rest for a nice picnic.
One thing I’m back and forth on is how much first aid equipment I carry. My usual kit is about the size of a sandwich bag and weighs about 1/4 lb. Adding airway adjuncts and a pocket mask to that doesn’t add much weight but they are bulky. So sometimes they go, but usually stay home. How much, if any, first aid stuff do you take?
My apologies to an excellent ski partner, but whenever the discussion comes around to keeping your pack light, I have to pull out this picture:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/bigpackjrrshasta.jpg
One of the better tips I’ve heard for a day pack is to take out all the little things that you haven’t used in two seasons. I may have gotten that from you Andrew, but it helped me drop a pound or two.
My medical stuff usually consists of some ibuprofen, a couple sterile dressings, and some tape, and I’ll ramp that up as seems appropriate (CPR mask, Superglue(tm), etc). FWIW, I’m an EMT-B and figure that tape and a (more or less clean) bandanna will get you through a lot of bc emergencies along with the stuff you already have in your pack…like a probe. ;^)
I forgot to mention that switching to aluminum crampons for most of those kind of trips helped drop some significant weight.
No axe? My God, next you’ll be having all of us ski naked!
:)
My first-aid kit looks a lot like my repair kit and consists mainly of tape, some sterile pads, etc..
It’s all about Whippets. If I do carry an axe, I prefer something like the BD Venom with a technical pick.
Great topic, though I’m not sure if gear sponsors would like it. Some other stuff I’ve seen friends pull out of their pack, that I did’t think was necessary for a day trip.
Rain gear
Stove
Snow saw
Enough water for a small elephant
Enough food for a weekend
Extra socks
If you don’t have stuff in your pack, you don’t spend much time stopped using it or looking for it, so you get done faster and don’t need even more stuff cause you spent too much time looking for your stuff and now it’s night and your too tired to just keep going to the car cause you were carrying too much stuff all day.
My kit varies as to whether I am alone, whether I am upslope of the car and not up and over to the car, the temperature, the weather, the altitude and exposure. I am guilty of upward creeping weight in my pack and sometimes it is too much. This spring on Mt Adams I was a bit freaked about a reported death from hypothermia on another volcano the previous week and carried way too much on a tour, it really slowed me. My second trip there I was back to a light pack, must more enjoyable.
Warm clothes that one can survive in while lying on the snow overnight are primary for me, and can be quite light.
As far as first aid gear, bandages seem necessary, tape of course, but I question CPR masks. Firstly, I know my partners and would not worry about needing a mask, especially for say, ventilating someone suffocated in an avalanche. Secondly, statistically speaking, resuscitation of a trauma victim needing CPR is almost a zero chance, I would certainly carry a probe (if I owned one : )} ) before carrying a CPR mask. Even in cardiac resuscitation in the field, without defibrillation CPR rarely is effective; one Medic once told me he was 0 for 33 doing CPR during one period.
Years ago I found that water consumption is lessened when one learns to dress properly for thermoregulation. Going uphill I wear a silkweight and a thin shell until it is colder than about 20 degrees, then add a light layer, etc. On moderate tours one may hydrate before and carry a relative small water supply.
Jordy! What a great pic. I miss seeing that smile when I walk through BD.
Funny, I just carried a 22oz of Rouge American Amber to the top of Broad’s Fork Twin Peaks. I accidently forgot it in my pack but it did make for a pleasant summit!
I will definitely keep the “if you need it but don’t have it you don’t need it” mantra in mind this winter.